The study examined 520 black graduates of HBCUs and 1,758 black graduates of other colleges. Gallup looked at five elements of well-being including: purpose, social, financial, community and physical. Then asked graduates about their satisfaction with their college experience and current engagement at work. The results, 55 percent of black HBCU graduates said they felt prepared for life after graduation, while only 29 percent of black graduates from other institutions said they felt prepared.

Gallup found that HBCU graduates are also most likely to have strong relationships, enjoy what they do each day for work, and they are more goal-oriented. However, the biggest gap in well-being among black graduates is in the financial breakdown. The report found that four in 10 black HBCU graduates are more likely to thrive financially while fewer than three in 10 black graduates of other schools can say the same.

“I think this is positive news in the grand scheme of things that we’ve heard recently because there’s still criticism about graduation rates and cohort default rates, but I think this is a whole new set of data that says a lot about the very, very beneficial experiences that are happening for students who attend HBCUs,” Brandon Busteed, executive director of education and workforce development at Gallup, told The Huffington Post.

No doubt HBCUs have had their share of trouble in recent years — between the misallocation of funds and a decrease in enrollment, Black schools are often times painted as inadequate in comparison to those who have attended Ivy Leagues or predominantly White schools. But proof that we still benefit from such spaces is evident in the Gallup study — Black HBCU graduates even say their colleges better prepared them for post-graduate life.

“Not only were black graduates from HBCUs much more likely to say they had a mentor who encouraged their goals and dreams and had a professor who cared about them as a person; they were also more likely to say they had a job or an internship where they applied what they were learning,” Busteed said. “So it’s both the emotional experiences and these experiential things that are connected to work preparation that are separating them according to their graduates.”